There were a small few of us that loved Bonner. I was a big fan, and I know there are others here too.

The rest of you, with your "Bonner is sucking Mitchells cock" mentality didn't get it. The guy was solid, and brough tlots to the game.

Nice little excerpt for Jack:

4. Matt Bonner (Spurs) - First in 3-point percentage in the league. This former Raptor is having an awesome year for Gregg Popovich. The system fits him perfectly. With Tim Duncan and a host of good shooters, along with Tony Parker's speed and penetration, he gets a ton of clean looks on the perimeter stretching out the floor at the four spot for his squad. He's a scrappy guy and is tougher and stronger than he looks. He's the perfect role player for this classy team.

And here's the article wear he talks about the shorts under his bulls shorts.

JENNIFER QUINN
SPORTS REPORTER

PHILADELPHIA—Jerome Williams used his jersey to wipe the sweat off his face and there, peeping over the waistband of his black Bulls practice shorts, was an unmistakable, vivid strip of purple.

Raptor purple. Williams was traded, tossed from the fold, told he was expendable and yet he still wears his Raptor shorts under his new Chicago Bulls uniform.

"Oh yeah," a wistful Williams grinned, pulling up the hem to show off the dinosaur logo on the left leg of his Raptor shorts.

"That's my therapy. That's therapeutic, until I get totally comfortable."

In the hours leading up to the Bulls' 83-82 loss last night to the Sixers, his second game with his new team, Williams seemed a little discombobulated. He was wearing his familiar long socks and headband — has already barked for the Chicago television cameras — but it seemed clear this isn't the same man.

Williams knows he wouldn't be in Chicago if it weren't for Antonio Davis; knows that he was the final piece that sealed the deal that sent Jalen Rose, Donyell Marshall and Lonny Baxter to the Raptors last Saturday.

Williams said yesterday that he never wanted to leave Toronto — "I made a commitment to the Raptors and I didn't foresee leaving before that commitment ended, but it's the nature of the beast" — and if he didn't have his strong Christian faith, he said he'd be really angry with Davis.

"If I didn't have faith, then yes, there would be (hard feelings). But my faith tells me the Lord wouldn't put me in a situation He didn't want me to be in, or whatever the scenario," Williams said. "My earthly sense is to blame Antonio, but you can't do that."

Williams' wife, Nikollette, is trying to find the family a place to live in Chicago. The couple's teenaged daughter is in high school in Toronto and that makes the situation more difficult. They're also reluctant to leave the city because their two youngest were born in Canada, Williams says reflectively.

Still, he notes, the NBA is a business. Williams is happy with the welcome he's received from his new teammates and is anxious to do well in his new job.

"I was bitter in the fact that I never wanted to leave Toronto and I miss my fans there and friends and the people in the organization, and the city itself," said Williams, who counted five points and seven rebounds against the Sixers. "But the sweet part of it is I get to come to another city where I'm embraced again. You know, what can you say? I'm constantly blessed. I was happy to meet my teammates and they were really happy to have me on the team."

As Williams warmed up on the Wachovia Center court, Davis sat in the visitors' locker room.

On the television, Vince Carter danced down the court and Donyell Marshall hit three-point shot after three-point shot.

The Raptors are going in the right direction, Davis said, as he watched the highlights of their Tuesday evening win over Allen Iverson and the Sixers.

They're playing smart, strong basketball as a team, Davis opined.

But he's so happy he's a Bull now, thrilled to be able to see his kids off to school and spend time with his wife.

He understands Williams' angst and points out that he's been there himself, but can't take responsibility for his teammate's situation.

"I'm not management. I don't make those calls. I've been traded. I have nothing to do with that," said Davis, who totalled seven points and a team-high 13 boards last night.

"I did say to him though, `I saw that your head was down and you don't seem to be as excited as I am and I know why. I understand how you feel.

"Now it's the same thing with you — you're away from your family and you're away from your kids, now you understand how I feel.'

"And I just told him if he ever needed to talk that I would be there."

Both Williams and Davis have nothing but praise for Glen Grunwald and the Raptors organization and especially for Larry Tanenbaum, whom they said treated them with honesty and respect, and both say they didn't clash with head coach Kevin O'Neill.

Davis said he did his best to ensure his personal situation had no effect on the team's chemistry and that he'd be offended by suggestions he soured the atmosphere.

"That would really hurt my feelings because I did everything I could to keep my personal stuff away from that locker room, away from that team. I never wanted to talk about it.

"For any man that's living in another city, working, trying to support his family, who doesn't get a chance to see his kids off to school and wake up with his wife every morning, if you asked that man would he rather be at home and things be different, I think he'd say, `Yeah.'

"Would that stop him from going out and doing his best? I don't think so."